I have several questions about a rather sizable project that I have been working on for awhile. I have been designing a project that revolves a little bit around different frames. At the beginning of the project, I figured that everything was all well and good until I did a bit of more research and found out about more information about frames and images. So after doing quite a bit more research, the general consensus of the law was that the displaying of pretty much any content on your website that is not yours is in direct violation of copyright law. Cited or not. So this really threw me off quite a bit because some of the biggest violators of copyright law are some of the biggest companies on the internet. Examples of Googles violations: Google Image Search shows millions of images directly on Google's website without consent, and barely a sourcing only a link. Google framing the targets website in a frame with a link, and a drop this frame option. Even a regular Google search produces some copyright infringements: Google search infringes by showing your personal title, description and other original information. Now, I know what your thinking... The reason why no one would ever tell Google to stop is because they drive them traffic and traffic makes the webmaster money. Well, the money you are making is a fraction of the money Google is making off the internet content. Now I know what, also, you might be saying "well google doesn't make a profit directly off of the picture search, or the frame section" And that brings us to our next offender: About.com In the following example, about.com does use frames, does not inform the reader that he is not viewing a non-about page with a border, or even give the source of the location. Just a simple "remove this frame". Not only that but they show banner ads and text ads. Example of About Now for my actual questions: What is the legalities surrounding frames on the internet? EDIT to Just add another question... Now let's say for instance that I have a web browser that shows advertisements (think any browser you have used) is it not in violation of copyright infringement for the web browser to show any information at all except their own since they are profiting off of the work of others?
Rule One: Don't look at what other much larger corporations are doing and assume you can do the same. They have millions investing in legal, you don't. They also may have partnerships/licenses in place that you don't know about. Also, there's the intimidation factor. Google may very well be breaking someone's copyright, but that copyright holder might be scared to mess with Google. However, they'd be more than happy to take you on. And when you get sued, you can't just say "others do it." If your project is really sizable, spend the money and hire a lawyer who specializes in IP as it relates to the Internet. As to Google images specially, they are displaying a thumbnail of an image and not the full size of the image, which is one way they evoke fair use.